Monday, July 12, 2010

But I thought Republicans had to move towards the "center"?

Hasn't that been the narrative for almost two years now, that the Republican party was out of touch, that it needed to embrace climate change, socialized medicine, amnesty for illegals, and affirmative action in order to become a relevant party again?

But it turns out, like all narratives driven by the media, that this meme was a bit...off-base. It seems - as least according to key Democrats - that it is their party that needs to move towards the center. And in this case, moving to the center means taking a hard Right turn:

The nation is on a "disastrous fiscal track" and Democrats must deal with it more directly or risk "huge" political consequences, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) said in an interview here Friday.

"I don't think we've done particularly well in the tryout, and I think it's going to hurt us," he said. "It's certainly hurting Democrats in Tennessee. And I wish we could get back more toward the middle of the road."

...when asked where he put Obama on the ideological spectrum, he said, "I'm not sure. I know in times that I talked to him during the campaign, he came across to me as fairly centrist on things. But I have to say that on things that have happened so far, he would be certainly well to the left of any independent in the country."

"Well to the left", indeed. Not what we were promised, not what we were told. And poor Governor Bredesen is shaking in his boots, about to feel the wrath of the center-right Tennessee voters, for what Obama has wrought. As Professor Jacobsonwrites today in a must-read post:

Democrats will pay the price politically for kicking the nation when it was down, for using a crisis to force through what the American people did not want, and for insulting those who objected.

A final piece of advice - don't waste your breath, Phil. If Obama doesn't give a sh*t about the opinions of 300 million Americans, he ain't gonna give a rat's tail about yours.

This captain is going down with the ship, but he's tying the lifeboats to the deck, and making sure everyone goes down to Davey Jones' locker with him...